Projects in Puerto CabezasVERBO Orphanage

Upcoming trip(May 2016) to improve the drinking water system for the VERBO Orphanage where children who attend the Airport School are housed and fed. The Orphanage provides for about 300 children each day and their existing water system only provides for their needs during the morning hours due to system inefficiencies.

The VERBO campus in Puerto Cabezas is comprised of two major areas: the residential area, where teams stay and Earl, the head resides, and the orphanage and school area, where major issues with the current water storage and distribution system exist. There are four wells that service the entire Verbo campus, one for the residential area, two for the school, one of which is shared with the orphanage and one specifically for the orphanage

The VERBO Orphanage is serviced by eight tanks: two 1500 liter tanks, and six 1100 liter tanks, 150 feet deep well and a one horse power pump. Many of the pipes were laid at grade, not underground, and many were exposed, causing broken pipes. The pipelines leading away from the well and tanks are undersized at ¾ of an inch. The well at the orphanage and the well at the school are hooked together and are fighting against each other to service the campus - more friction and head. The discharge piping currently goes under the orphanage that was just remodeled, therefore we can only upsize to the point where it enters under the building, then it can be reduced back down. The tank base at orphanage is leaking from a crack in the bottom concrete slab. A couple of the columns have exposed rebar; the water has leaked through somewhere through the slab but there is no visible connection was leaking at the top – solution, put a bigger tank on the ground and use a solar panel to power the system. Water can only be given to kitchen or orphanage, so when the kitchen is being used, all water goes to the kitchen.